I’ll admit it: I have a procrastination problem and one of my biggest distractions is my smartphone. That puts me in a similar situation as thousands of students. Thankfully, there are many apps that can be useful for minimizing that habit and boosting productivity. Here are five of my favorites:

1. Forest

Forest is a fun twist on the “phone locking” apps and browser plug-ins that keep you off your phone or other device when you need to study. Not only is Forest simple and visually appealing, but it does more than just keep you off your phone. When you use Forest, you plant a tree or flowered bush, and it grows as you work. The size and detail of the tree depends on the amount of time you choose to work. This ranges from 10 minutes, during which you can grow a small bush, to two hours, when you can grow the most detailed version of a tree. If you succeed at staying off your phone for your decided amount of time, you’ll get a tree or bush to add to your forest. You also accumulate points as you accumulate hours off your phone. These points can be used to obtain different kinds of trees, including tree houses, flowered trees, trees with birds’ nests, lemon trees, cherry blossom trees and others. This lets you use your productivity to make your own unique forest full of beautiful trees! You can share your progress on your forest with your friends using Facebook as well.

Forest is free in the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. Using the free version is great in itself, but you can upgrade for $0.99 to go ad-free, put your forest on a cloud, enter in a global ranking and follow the progress of your friends’ forests.

It is also free as browser plug-ins for Chrome and Firefox.

For ios, Forest costs $0.99, and $1.99 for Microsoft’s Window’s Phone.

2. FocusNow – Bye Delay

For a similar phone-locking, productivity-boosting and fun app that is free for IOS, try FocusNow – Bye Delay. It is just like Forest, but you grow fruits and vegetables! Build up enough points, and you can grow tomatoes, apples, grapes, watermelon, radishes and pineapple. Instead of developing a forest, you develop a farm with your vegetables and fruits. There are functions for sharing your farm with friends through a multiplayer option, and you can also choose different habits you want to improve—it’s not just for studying! You can get rewarded for working, exercising or even staying off your phone at dinner. You can also enter your farm in a global ranking. The downside to this app for English-speakers is that it was originally made in Chinese. The translations in the English version of the app aren’t perfect, but it is overall still fun, easy to use and does its job.

The app is free in the App Store and the Amazon App Store.

3. Pocket Points

Pocket Points doesn’t just give you virtual rewards for staying off your phone, you get real-word rewards too! When you enter the app and lock your phone, you get coupons and discounts for local stores and eateries such as Pita Pit, KFC, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, Panda Express and others. As long as you’re on campus, you get rewarded for staying off your phone during class and while studying or doing homework. The downside to this is that you need to be on a college campus, and your college needs to be on the list of schools in the app. If your school isn’t on the list however, you can suggest your school to be added to the list.

Not only do you save money just for staying off your phone, but it’s free in the App Store and Google Play Store.

4. Flow Tasks and Flow Chat

Flow Tasks is a great app for group projects and allows you to share materials, notes, and tasks with a group of people. Flow Tasks doubles as a to-do list and document cloud for groups, and makes it easy to keep everyone updated on what’s going on without emailing, texting or meeting often. You can keep all of your documents on the cloud and group members can participate in adding tasks, checking them off and keeping materials updated so everyone is on the same page. Flow Tasks’ companion app, Flow Chat, works as a group chat but can also be used for direct messages between group members.

Flow Tasks is free in the App Store and Google Play Store. It also has a desktop app for Mac computers.

Flow Chat is also free for ios and android devices.

5. Coach.me

This app is not only for productivity, but for reaching goals in general. Coach.me helps you track your progress on different goals ranging from studying and exercising to meditating or learning a foreign language. You can use the app to streamline all of your goals and set reminders. The app also allows users to be part of an online community of people reaching for the same goal. Interact with the community and develop a support system by asking and answering questions from others. Sometimes, productivity isn't just about getting rid of distractions but by developing a support system as well.

This app is free in the App Store and Google Play Store, and accessible online.

In addition to the free app, it is possible to pay for one-on-one coaching from professionals through Coach.me.

There are thousands of apps out there designed for boosting productivity. Everyone has unique needs when it comes to staying productive, and there are definitely enough apps to explore to find the right one.